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Forwarding the time by a few weeks, the days passed without incident and we returned back to our normal everyday life. It was already July and the warm weather had started to take over.

That day, I opened the door while feeling extremely gloomy. Usually, Michelle and Letina would be the ones greeting me now, but…

“Squeak?”

I was instead met with a big furball. No, like, I remembered what it was. I just didn’t know why it was here. The Carbuncle that I had parted with a few weeks prior was standing at my door, carrying some kind of wrapping on its back.

“Why are you here?”
“Squeee!”

It skilfully put down the wrapping and took out a letter from it. Cortina realized that I hadn’t left for school for some reason and came out to check what was going on.

“Is something wrong, Nicole—wait a minute, the Carbuncle!?”
“Yeah, no idea why it’s here.”

I wasn’t sure what to say, so I simply stated the fact. I accepted the letter and read the contents. It appeared to be a message from the White God written with polished letters.

“It seems that it has taken a liking to you so I decided to leave it to you. It seems it’s attached to that Mikey kid too so please take it along and have them meet sometime.”

She wrote something so shameless. Did she just seriously tell me to keep it downtown? I can already tell that’s gonna cause me extreme mental anguish!

“…Is it that white girl? I remember you said Fafnir took it away, didn’t you?”
“She seemed to be acquaintanced with Fafnir.”
“Still, to adopt it, huh… It’s a protected beast, you know? It’s not something you can just adopt.”
“Can we?”

I cutely tilted my head and asked for permission. She was the head of this house, after all. I couldn’t keep a pet without her permission. That’s why I tried to butter up to her as much as I could. This conversation sounded a lot like how kids often went, “mommy, can we keep it?”

“No, we have to send it back to where it came from… Is what I would normally answer here, but…”

The pet in question was a protected Mythical Beast so she couldn’t irresponsibly drive it away. If she did and it was subject to poaching, then all that responsibility could instead fall on her shoulders.

Fortunately enough, Cortina was a celebrity in this country, so she could be flexible in some regards. It would be easy for her to get permission to keep it if she asked Maxwell. However, the troubles that action would bring with it couldn’t be waved off either.

For that reason, she hesitated on giving the immediate reply… But at that moment, the Carbuncle took out another letter and an item. Accepting those, I went ahead and read the letter.

“Of course, I’m not asking you to do it for free. As thanks, I present this item to the guardian. This is a potion made by diluting the dragon’s blood and adjusting the composition. It can increase the user’s life span. This one bottle is three people’s worth.”

What the Carbuncle took out was a small bottle with a pale red liquid in it. If what the letter said was true, it was nothing short of a mythical grade item. If the word got out about this item, it could very well lead to war.

“What in the world did I just receive…”

I muttered without thinking. Michelle’s bow was one thing, but this was already on a whole another level. But after Cortina read the explanation, she was quick on her decision.

“Okay, you are part of our family from now on!”
“Wai-, are you sure!?”
“I am, I am. I have to show tolerance as the family head here!”

She said that while grabbing the bottle. Her real thoughts were as clear as day.

“You just want that, don’t you?”
“Huh!?”

But that was odd in its own right. Cortina was still considered young for a cat beastmen. She wasn’t so old that she needed to worry about her age. Even when it came to Maxwell, while he was indeed old for an Elf, he still had another human’s lifespan left.

“Cortina, you are still young, you know?”
“No, it’s not like I’m planning to use it on myself…”

After she said that much, it finally hit me. She didn’t want that for herself, but perhaps for my parents—Lyell and Maria. Those two were humans with a normal lifespan. While the old age didn’t show on Maria, it was quite obvious with Lyell. It was unthinkable that Cortina who had a long lifespan failed to notice that.

Maxwell was already used to partings that accompanied his lifespan, but Cortina was still young and her mental state wasn’t as firm.

As such, she willingly bit the bait that was dangling before her eyes. Naturally, she couldn’t be certain whether this potion truly extended one’s life, but she still judged that it was better than nothing.

Not to mention, she could have it appraised as long as we had Maxwell with us. Even if it was poison, all we had to do was to ask Maria to Purify it.

“I see, so it’s for mom and dad…”
“Oh, Nicole, why are you so good at guessing. But that aside, I have to confirm one thing first.”
“Confirm…?”

She turned towards the Carbuncle and said something unbelievable with a meek expression.

“You… Aren’t Reid, right?”
“Squee?”

Carbuncle could obviously not understand what she was talking about. It could understand words, but not the contents.

“Like that could be true…”
“Ugh, I-I know that already! Anyway, you’ll be late, you know? Leave this little one to me and hurry to the school.”
“Kaay.”

Just as I replied back, Letina showed up across the street. Michelle’s door opened right after and she showed up with her giant bow. When they looked my way and saw the Carbuncle, their excitement shot through the roof.

“Waah, what is that! Ah, morning, Nicole. You’re up early today!”
“Morning, Michelle. This is the Carbuncle. You know, the one from the Elf town.”
“The one you met in the cave? Did it follow you all the way here?”
“No, more like it was driven away, I guess?”

That Goddess pushed it on me, so I guess you could call it being driven away… Or maybe it’s not that simple?

“Oh, are you going to be keeping it at Lady Cortina’s house? I want one too!”
“Morning, Letina. If you call yourself a lady, you should be greeting people first.”
“Good morning, Nicole. I never thought you’d be preaching me about lady manners.”
“Ugh…”

Hearing Letina says that, I recalled my recent conduct. I flirted in the bathroom, exchanged presents with Finia and made blunders, and drank the fruit juice in all smiles.

It felt as if my dignity and stoicism from my past life had already disappeared without a trace. Given my conduct, instead of the “Peerless Hero”, wasn’t I on the route to becoming a “Wife”?

Shivers of disgust traveled down my spine upon that frightful realization.